System and Method for Displaying Trading Data

ABSTRACT

A system and method are provided for presenting trading information. One example method includes displaying a plurality of effective trade indicators corresponding to price levels at which effective trades have been initiated, and displaying trading information corresponding to each effective trade. The effective trades can be determined based on user-configured trade definitions. The trading information can include a traded quantity and profit/loss corresponding to each effective trade. In addition to the trading information, current market information could be displayed as well in relation to the plurality of effective trades.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/167,009 filed Jan. 29, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/858,333 filed Apr. 8, 2013, now U.S. Pat.No. 8,682,769, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/158,602 filed Jun. 13, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,438,087, whichis a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/549,081, filedAug. 27, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,032,437, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/415,356, filed May 1, 2006, now U.S.Pat. No. 7,599,868, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/095,235, filed Mar. 31, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,634,437.The entire contents of each of these applications are herewithincorporated by reference into the present application for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is directed to electronic trading. Morespecifically, the present invention is directed towards processing anddisplaying trading information.

BACKGROUND

An exchange is a central marketplace with established rules andregulations where buyers and sellers, referred to as traders, meet totrade. Some exchanges, referred to as open outcry exchanges, operateusing a trading floor where buyers and sellers physically meet on thefloor to trade. Other exchanges, referred to as electronic exchanges,operate by an electronic or telecommunications network instead of atrading floor to facilitate trading in an efficient, versatile, andfunctional manner. An electronic exchange typically provides a matchingprocess between buying and selling traders. Electronic exchanges havemade it possible for an increasing number of people to activelyparticipate in a market at any given time. The increase in the number ofpotential market participants has led to, among other things, a morecompetitive market and greater liquidity. Some example exchanges areEurex, LIFFE, CME, and CBOT.

With respect to electronic exchanges, traders may connect to anelectronic exchange trading platform by way of a communication linkthrough their user terminals. Once connected, traders may typicallychoose which tradeable objects they wish to trade. As used herein, theterm “tradeable object” refers to anything that can be traded with aquantity and/or price. It includes, but is not limited to, all types oftraded events, goods and/or financial products, which can include, forexample, stocks, options, bonds, futures, currency, and warrants, aswell as funds, derivatives and collections of the foregoing, and alltypes of commodities, such as grains, energy, and metals. The tradeableobject may be “real,” such as products that are listed by an exchangefor trading, or “synthetic,” such as a combination of real products thatis created by the user. A tradeable object could actually be acombination of other tradeable objects, such as a class of tradeableobjects.

Client entities, such as computers being used by traders to trade, aretypically connected to an electronic exchange by way of a communicationlink to facilitate electronic messaging between the trading entities andthe exchange. The messaging may include market information that isdistributed from the electronic exchange to traders, as well as orders,quotes, acknowledgements, fills, cancels, deletes, cancel and replace,and other well-known financial transaction messages. Although the amountor type of market information published by an electronic exchange oftendiffers, there are typically some standard pieces of information. Forinstance, market information usually includes the inside market, whichgenerally includes the current lowest sell price (often referred to asthe best ask) and the current highest buy price (often referred to asthe best bid). Market information may also include market depth, whichgenerally refers to quantities available in the market at the pricelevels other than those corresponding to the inside market. In additionto providing order book information including price and quantityinformation, electronic exchanges can offer other types of market datasuch as the open price, settlement price, net change, volume, lasttraded price, last traded quantity, and order fill information.

Once a trader at the client entity receives the market information, itmay be displayed on the trading screen. Upon viewing the marketinformation, traders can take certain actions including the actions ofsending buy or sell orders to the electronic market, adjusting existingorders, deleting orders, or otherwise managing orders. Traders may alsouse software tools to automate these and additional actions.

To profit in electronic markets, market participants must be able toassimilate large amounts of data, and must react to the received datamore quickly than other competing market participants. Thus, it isdesirable to offer tools that can assist a trader in trading in suchelectronic trading systems.

SUMMARY

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a method forpresenting trading information including receiving a user input from auser input device via a graphical user interface that provides a userconfigurable definition for an effective trade, storing the userconfigurable definition for the effective trade, receiving datacomprising order fill information relating to orders placed for atradeable object at an electronic exchange, using the user configurabledefinition to determine whether the effective trade has occurred basedon the received data, computing the profit/loss value for the effectivetrade based on the received data, and displaying on the graphical userinterface the profit/loss value. The effective trade comprises agrouping of filled orders. The grouping of filled orders includes filledorders related by the user configurable definition and is to be used todetermine a profit/loss value for the effective trade.

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a computer-readablemedium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions forperforming a method including receiving a user input from a user inputdevice via a graphical user interface that provides a user configurabledefinition for an effective trade, storing the user configurabledefinition for the effective trade, receiving data comprising order fillinformation relating to orders placed for a tradeable object at anelectronic exchange, using the user configurable definition to determinewhether the effective trade has occurred based on the received data,computing the profit/loss value for the effective trade based on thereceived data, and displaying on the graphical user interface theprofit/loss value. The effective trade comprises a grouping of filledorders. The grouping of filled orders includes filled orders related bythe user configurable definition and is to be used to determine aprofit/loss value for the effective trade.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Example embodiments of the present invention are described herein withreference to the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example network configurationfor a communication system utilized to access one or more exchanges;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a clientdevice;

FIGS. 3A-3F illustrate a plurality of examples for detecting effectivetrades and determining trading information in relation to each tradelevel;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example display that can beused to display trading information in relation to a plurality of tradelevels; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating another example display that canbe used to display trading information in relation to a plurality oftrading levels and indicators corresponding to the current marketconditions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Effective Trade Data Display Overview

It is beneficial to offer tools that can assist a trader in trading inan electronic trading environment and that can help the trader to viewmarket trends, current market conditions, as well as the trader'sperformance in a speedy and accurate manner. The example embodiments,among other things, are directed towards displaying volume and othertrading data in relation to orders initiated by a trader. One examplemethod includes displaying a plurality of indicators associated with aplurality of effective trades corresponding to a plurality of tradesthat a trader performed in relation to a tradeable object. The methodalso includes displaying trading related information corresponding toeach effective trade. According to the example embodiment, an effectivetrade can be detected by grouping a plurality of orders based on anyuser-defined formula or definition that controls grouping of orders todetect the effective trade. The effective trade may be identified usinga price level at which an effective trade was initiated. According toone example, an effective trade could be detected when a trader's netposition changes from flat to short and then to flat again, with theeffective trade containing all fills that were used to go back to theflat position. Then, trading related information corresponding to theeffective trade could include a profit/loss (“P/L”) level and a quantitythat was traded in relation to the effective trade, such as a quantitycorresponding to an order that created the short position. Thequantities displayed in relation to each effective trade may be groupedbased on whether the order that initiated an effective trade was a buyorder, thus, resulting in a long trade, or a sell order, thus, resultingin a short trade. According to one example embodiment, new tradeindicators as well as corresponding trading data can be automaticallydisplayed when new trades are detected.

While the example embodiments are described herein with reference toillustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should beunderstood that the example embodiments are not limited thereto. Othersystems, methods, and advantages of the present embodiments will be orbecome apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of thefollowing drawings and description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features, and advantages be within thescope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanyingclaims.

II. Hardware and Software Overview

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the exampleembodiments may be operated in an entirely software embodiment, in anentirely hardware embodiment, or in a combination thereof. However, forsake of illustration, the example embodiments are described in asoftware-based embodiment, which is executed on a computer device. Assuch, the example embodiments may take the form of a computer programproduct that is stored on a computer readable storage medium and isexecuted by a suitable instruction system in the computer device. Anysuitable computer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks,CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, or magnetic storage devices, forexample.

In an electronic trading environment, when an authorized trader selectsa tradeable object, the trader may access market data related to theselected tradeable object(s). Referring to FIG. 1, an examplecommunication that might occur between an electronic exchange and aclient entity in accordance with the example embodiments is shown.During a trading session, market data 108, in the form of messages, maybe relayed from a host exchange 106 over communication links 116 and 112to a client entity generally indicated as 102. The client entity 102 maybe a single client terminal that is used by a single trader or multipleclient terminals corresponding to multiple traders associated with oneor more trading groups. As illustrated in FIG. 1, intermediate devices,such as gateway(s) 104, may be used to facilitate communications betweenthe client entity 102 and the host exchange 106. It should be understoodthat while FIG. 1 illustrates the client entity 102 communicating with asingle host exchange 106, in an alternative embodiment, the cliententity 102 could establish trading sessions with more than one hostexchange. Also, it should be understood that information beingcommunicated between the client entity 102 and the exchange 106 could becommunicated via a single communication path.

The market data 108 contains information that characterizes thetradeable object including, among other parameters, order relatedparameters, such as price and quantity, and the inside market, whichrepresents the lowest sell price (also referred to as the best or lowestask price), and the highest buy price (also referred to as the best orhighest bid price). In some electronic markets, market data may alsoinclude market depth, which generally refers to quantities available fortrading the tradeable object at certain buy price levels and quantitiesavailable for trading the tradeable object at certain sell price levels.

In addition to providing the tradeable object's order book information,electronic exchanges can offer different types of market informationsuch as total traded quantity for each price level, opening price, lasttraded price, last traded quantity, closing price, or order fillinformation. It should be understood that market information providedfrom an electronic exchange could include more or fewer items dependingon the type of tradeable object or the type of exchange. Also, it shouldbe understood that the messages provided in the market data 108 may varyin size depending on the content carried by them, and the software atthe receiving end may be programmed to understand the messages and toact out certain operations.

A trader may view the information provided from an exchange via one ormore specialized trading screens created by software running on theclient entity 102. Upon viewing the market information or a portionthereof, a trader may wish to take actions, such as send orders to anexchange, cancel orders at the exchange, or change order parameters, forexample. To do that, the trader may input various commands or signalsinto the client entity 102. Upon receiving one or more commands orsignals from the trader, the client entity 102 may generate messagesthat reflect the actions taken, generally shown at 110. It should beunderstood that different types of messages or order types can besubmitted to the host exchange 106, all of which may be consideredvarious types of transaction information. Once generated, user actionmessages 110 may be sent from the client entity 102 to the host exchangeover communication links 114 and 116.

The client entity 102 may use software that creates specializedinteractive trading screens on the client entity 102. The tradingscreens enable traders to enter and execute orders, obtain marketquotes, and monitor positions. The range and quality of featuresavailable to the trader on his or her screens varies according to thespecific software application being run. In addition to or in place ofthe interactive trading screens, the client entity 102 may run automatednon-interactive types of trading applications.

A commercially available trading application that allows a user to tradein systems like those shown in FIG. 1 and subsequent figures isX_TRADER® from Trading Technologies International, Inc. of Chicago, Ill.X_TRADER® also provides an electronic trading interface, referred to asMD Trader™, in which working orders and bid/ask quantities are displayedin association with a static price axis or scale. Portions of theX_TRADER® and the MD Trader™-style display are described in U.S. Pat.No. 6,772,132 entitled “Click Based Trading With Intuitive Grid Displayof Market Depth,” filed on Jun. 9, 2000, U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/971,087, entitled “Click Based Trading With Intuitive GridDisplay of Market Depth and Price Consolidation,” filed on Oct. 5, 2001,and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/125,894, entitled “Trading Toolsfor Electronic Trading,” filed on Apr. 19, 2002, the contents of eachare incorporated herein by reference. As mentioned above, the scope ofthe example embodiments described herein are not limited by the type ofterminal or device used, and are not limited to any particular type oftrading application.

III. Example System Function and Operation

The system and methods described hereinafter can be used to assist atrader in monitoring his trade history, including his tradingperformance, in a speedy and accurate manner. More specifically, and aswill be described in greater detail below, a graphical interface isprovided that allows a trader to view trade related information inrelation to a plurality of indicators associated with a plurality oftrades, such as price levels at which a trader initiated his trades. Thegraphical interface may also display one or more indicators associatedwith market related information so that a trader can easily view currentmarket conditions in relation to his trading data. According to theexample embodiments that will be described in greater detail below, thetrades, also referred hereinafter as effective trades, may be detectedbased on any user-configured formulas defining what constitutes aneffective trade.

FIG. 2 is an example client device 200 including a plurality ofcomponents that can be used to process market data being provided by anelectronic exchange according to the example embodiments. The exampleclient device 200 can include any type of computing device, such as apersonal computer, laptop computer, hand-held computer, or other devicesthat have network access. According to the example embodiments, theclient device 200 has a trading application 202 stored in a memory unit.When executed, the trading application 202 arranges and displays marketinformation in many different ways, usually depending on how the traderprefers to view the information.

The trading application 202 has access to market information, and canforward transaction information to the exchange 212 through anapplication programming interface (“API”) 206. Alternatively, API 206could be distributed so that a portion of the API 206 rests on theclient device 200 and a gateway, or at the exchange 212. Additionally,the trading application 202 could receive other information through theAPI 206, such as news or numbers from outside sources other than theexchange 212.

Client device 200 also includes a trade information application 204 thatcan implement the embodiments for presenting trading informationdescribed herein. The trade information application 204 can generate agraphical interface that a trader can use to view his trading dataarranged in relation to a plurality of effective trades detected basedon effective trade definitions. According to the example embodiments,the trade information application 204 uses one or more effective tradedefinitions to determine when an effective trade is initiated, and alsohow consequently filled orders should be grouped to determine anytrading information corresponding to the effective trade, theembodiments of which will be described in greater detail below. Thetrading information that can be displayed for each effective trade mayinclude a profit/loss (“P/L”) level determined for a trade level, atotal quantity traded in relation to the effective trade, as well asother information.

The effective trade definitions could be user configurable and couldtake many different formats. For example, an effective trade could bedetected when a trader, after having a flat position, takes a positionin the market, such as buys or sell quantity in relation to a tradeableobject. Alternatively, an effective trade could be defined when atrader's net position changes from being short to long, or from long toshort. According to the example embodiments described herein, aneffective trade contains all fills received while the trader has an openposition created with an order and until the position created inrelation to that order is closed. In other words, an effective trade maybe defined as going from a flat position to having a position-eithershort or long, to being flat again.

According to the example embodiments, a trader could define additionalrules that may allow the trade information application 204 to determinehow to pair the executed, e.g., filled, buy and sell orders, to detecttrade levels and to determine trading information for each effectivetrade. Two example methods of pairing the buy and sell orders are firstin, first out (“FIFO”), and last in, last out (“LIFO”). To illustratethe two methods, let's assume that a trader executes three orders, andthe orders get filled at an electronic exchange: Buy #1 with an orderquantity of 5, Buy #2 with an order quantity of 5, and Sell #1 with anorder quantity of 3. Using the FIFO method, the trade informationapplication 204 may determine any trading related information, such asprofit/loss (“P/L”) values, by grouping the Sell #1 order with the Buy#1 order first, before the second Buy #2 order is considered. If LIFOmethod is used, any trade information would be determined by groupingthe Sell #1 order with the Buy #2 order before the first Buy #1 order isconsidered.

FIGS. 3A-3F illustrate a plurality of examples for detecting effectivetrades and determining trading information in relation to each tradelevel. For all examples in FIGS. 3A-3F, let's assume that the tick valueof a single tick price increase or decrease is +/−$50. Each FIG. 3A-3Fillustrates a table having a number of columns, including an ordercolumn, an order type (“B/S”) column, a quantity (“Qty”) column, a“Price” column, a “Net Position” column, and a “Net P/L” column. Theorder column lists an example set of orders that a trader placed at anelectronic exchange and that were filled for a tradeable object. Theorder type column indicates if an order was a buy or a sell, and the“Qty” column includes a quantity that was traded in relation to eachorder. The “Price” column defines a price level at which each order wasplaced. The “Net Position” column indicates a cumulative net positionvalue. The “Net P/L” column lists P/L levels calculated based on theshown orders, and a “Formula” column illustrates which orders correspondto effective trades and how other orders are grouped to calculatetrading information in relation to each detected effective trade.

FIG. 3A illustrates an embodiment of detecting effective trades when atrader's position changes from flat to long, and the FIFO method is usedto control grouping of the orders. Since two buy orders are placed atthe same price level, and assuming that the trader's net position beforeexecuting the buy orders was zero, a net effective trade can be detectedbased on the two buy orders. The effective trade, as mentioned inrelation to earlier paragraphs, could be identified using the pricelevel corresponding to the executed buy orders, which in this example is1124.00. Alternatively, rather than detecting a single trade, two tradescould be detected as well in relation to the trade level 1124.00, onetrade based on the first order and the second trade based on the secondorder.

FIG. 3B illustrates an embodiment for detecting effective trades when atrader's position changes from flat to long and then to flat again,while the FIFO method is used to determine which orders are used tooffset the opened positions. As mentioned in relation to earlierfigures, in addition to displaying indicators corresponding to effectivetrades, the trade information application 204 may determine tradinginformation, such as P/L or some other item of interest, in relation toeach effective trade. The Formula column in Table 302 shows how theorders were grouped to establish P/L for each detected trade. As shownin FIG. 3B, two trades are detected in relation to the first order andthe fifth order. The first order corresponds to a trade since a trader'snet position is changed from 0 to +5 by executing the first buy order.Then, the fifth order corresponds to another trade since the trader'snet position is further increased before the open position created withthe first order is closed. The Formula column then shows howsubsequently executed sell orders are paired with the orders thatinitiated the effective trades. For example, as shown in relation to thesecond order, the sell order at 1124.50 is paired with the first ordercorresponding to the detected trade. The Net P/L of 25 corresponding tothe second order is determined using the formula (Order 2−Order1)*Qty*Tick Value, which in this example corresponds to(1124.50−1124.00)*1*50, or 25, as shown in the Net P/L column inrelation to the second order. As shown in FIG. 3B, the net positioncreated with the first order is closed using the second, third, fourth,and sixth orders. Since the FIFO method controls how the orders aregrouped, the sixth order is used to close the position created with thefirst order rather than the fifth order that was placed in the marketlater than the first order. Based on the Net P/L listed in Table 302,the Net P/L corresponding to the first effective trade and the secondeffective trade level are 137.50 and 50, respectively.

FIG. 3C illustrates an embodiment for detecting trades when a trader'sposition changes from flat to long to short to flat, and the FIFO methodis used to determine which orders are used to offset the openedpositions. As shown in Table 304, two trades are detected, with thefirst trade being initiated with the first order, and the second tradebeing initiated with the fourth order. The P/L for the first trade isestablished based on the second, third, and partially the fourth order,with the quantity of 2 corresponding to the fourth order being used toclose position initiated with the first order, and the remainingquantity of 5 creating the second trade that is offset with orders 5-9.Similarly to the previous figure, Table 304 shows Net P/L established inrelation to each order that is used to offset the open positions createdat the trades.

As mentioned earlier, rather than using the FIFO method for groupingorders in relation to effective trades, the LIFO method could be usedinstead. FIGS. 3D-3F illustrate three example embodiments for detectingtrades, while using the LIFO method to group orders. Referring to FIG.3D, Table 306 shows two sell orders that constitute two trades at pricelevels of 1125.0 and 1127.0, respectively. No Net P/L values are shownin relation to either of the orders since none of the shown orders canoffset the opened positions.

FIG. 3E illustrates another embodiment for detecting trades when atrader's position changes from Flat to Short and then to Flat again,while the LIFO method is used to determine which orders are used tooffset the opened positions corresponding to the trades. As shown inTable 308, there are four effective trades. The Formula column shows howthe orders are grouped based on the LIFO method. For example, the thirdorder, corresponding to the Buy order having a quantity of 1, is used tooffset the open position created in relation to the second order ratherthan the first order since the second sell order was placed after thefirst order, or in other words was the “Last In.” Similarly, forexample, the buy quantity corresponding to the fifth order is used tooffset the position created with the fourth order corresponding to thesell.

FIG. 3F illustrates yet another embodiment for detecting trades when atrader's net position changes from Flat to Short to Long to Flat, whilealso using the LIFO method. As shown in Table 310, six trades aredetected in relation to the first, second fourth, sixth, ninth, andtenth orders. The LIFO method is used to determine which orders shouldbe used to determine P/L levels for each effective trade. For example,as shown in the Formula column of Table 310, the eighth order is used todetermine the P/L in relation to the first trade at 1125.00, and thethird order is used to determine the P/L in relation to the second tradeat 1126.00.

IV. Example Trading Information Displays

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating one example trading informationdisplay 400 that can be used for displaying trading information inrelation to a plurality of trades associated with a tradeable object.The display 400 includes a trade level column 402, a trade number column404, a short quantity column 406, a long quantity column 408, and anaccumulated profit/loss (“P/L”) column 410 corresponding to the tradelevels. The trade level column 402 specifies price levels at which longand short trades have been initiated. It should be understood thatindicators, other than prices, could also be used to indicate tradelevels.

The trade number column 404 specifies the number of trades that weredeemed initiated at each trade level, so that when more than oneeffective trade was detected in relation to a specific price level, thatnumber will be displayed in the trade number column. The short quantitycolumn 406 and the long quantity column 408 indicate if an effectivetrade was initiated with a buy order (long trade) or a sell order (shorttrade). In such an embodiment, two trade levels, such as trade levelscorresponding to the price level of 10400, could be displayed inrelation to the interface when a short trade and a long trade have beeninitiated from the same trade level. Also, while FIG. 4 shows twoseparate columns in relation to short trades and long trades, in analternative embodiment, the two columns could be combined into a singlecolumn reflecting a total quantity traded at each trade level. The tradelevels can be determined using methods described above in relation toFIGS. 3A-3F. However, different methods could also be used for detectingtrade levels.

Finally, the P/L column 410 represents the cumulative profit and lossincurred in relation to each trade level. For example, referring to FIG.3B, there were two trade levels detected in relation to the price level1124.00 and 1124.5, with two trade levels corresponding to two longtrades, and the cumulative P/Ls for each level being 137.50 and 50,respectively. Referring to FIG. 4, for example, the trade levelcorresponding to the price of 10422 corresponds to 6 trades, all ofwhich were initiated as long trades, with a total traded quantity of 50.Then, the P/L level corresponding to the 10422 trade level is $550.Similar data is shown in relation to other trade levels illustrated inFIG. 4. While not shown in FIG. 4, the interface 400 could also includethe total P/L level value corresponding to all trades at the pluralityof trade levels. Also, a plurality of P/L levels could be shown inrelation to each trade level, and the plurality of P/L values couldcorrespond to a plurality of trades initiated at that trade level. Insuch an embodiment, for example, the trade level of 10422 could includethe overall P/L level, and then six individual P/L levels correspondingto the six trades that were initiated at that trade level. It should beunderstood that the entries in the display 400 are dynamically updatedas the trade information application 204 detects new trades in relationto the existing or new trade levels. When the trade informationapplication 204 detects a new trade level, the trade informationapplication 204 could automatically create a new row in the display 400for the detected trade level, and the trading information correspondingto the new trade level could be populated in the newly created cells.

It should be understood that the trade information display 400 is notlimited to the format in FIG. 4, and it could take many differentformats and shapes. For example, rather than displaying tradinginformation corresponding to each trade level horizontally in relationto each trade level, in another embodiment, the same information couldbe displayed in vertical columns, or yet in some other configuration.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating another example trade informationdisplay 500 that can be used to display trade level related data as wellas market data related to a tradeable object. Similarly to the display400 illustrated in FIG. 4, the trade information display 500 includes atrade level column 502, a trade number column 504, a short quantitycolumn 506, a long quantity column 508, and a P/L column 510. The datadisplayed in relation to each of the columns 502-508 have been describedin relation to the preceding FIG. 4. Additionally, FIG. 5 includes atotal volume traded column 512 that displays a total volume that wastraded in relation to each trade level. Using such a display, a tradercan quickly asses the market activity at each of his trade levels.Similarly to other values displayed in relation to the trade informationdisplay 500, the total traded volume values could be dynamically updatedbased on market data being received from an electronic exchange.

Also, the trade information display 500 includes a graphical indicatorin relation to each value displayed in the short and long quantitycolumns 506 and 508. The graphical indicator, as shown in FIG. 5, couldinclude a bar, such as the bar 514 illustrated in relation to the tradelevel of 10422. The length of the bar could be controlled based on anyuser-defined scale. For example, the entire length of each cell in thelong and short quantity columns could be preconfigured to correspond toa predetermined value, and then the length of each bar displayed in thecells could be scaled accordingly.

The trade information displays could also reflect current marketconditions. The example trade information display 500 includes agraphical indicator 516 that dynamically corresponds to the last tradedprice, 10400 in this example, i.e., moves up and down the chart. Whilethe indicator 516 is of the format that highlights the entire length ofthe level corresponding to the trade level, it should be understood thatdifferent indicators could be used as well. Also, another indicator,such as an indicator 518, could be used to show whether the current lasttraded price is higher or lower than the previous last traded price. Theupper arrow in FIG. 5 indicates that the last traded price is higherthan the previous last traded price. Similarly, a down arrow could beused to show that the last traded price is lower than the previous lasttraded price. Rather than showing a separate indicator, the indicatorcorresponding to the last traded price could be color-coded to indicatethe two situations. It should be understood that different parameterscould also be displayed in relation to the last traded price. Forexample, a value indicating a time period from the last change in thelast traded price could be displayed so that a trader can easily assesthe market's volatility.

Also, as the last traded price moves between the plurality of tradelevels, the trade information display 500 could provide additionalinformation, such as the overall P/L level corresponding to a specificrange of trade levels, giving a trader an immediate feedback as to howthe trader performed in that specific range. One example range 520 isshown in FIG. 5, and the range 520 includes two trade levels. However,it should be understood that a trader could define a different number oftrade levels to be used in relation to displaying a range associatedwith the last traded price.

Rather than, or in addition to displaying the last traded price level,the trade information displays could include different market relateddata. For example, one or two indicators could be used to displaycurrent inside market levels, such as the best bid level, the best asklevel, or both inside market levels, in relation to the displayed tradelevels. It should be understood that different graphical indicatorscould be used as well. Also, when the inside market falls at some pricesother than those corresponding to the displayed trade levels, acolor-coded line, or yet some other indicator, could be displayed inrelation to one or more trade levels to indicate whether the insidemarket is higher or lower than one or more of the displayed tradelevels. For example, referring to FIG. 5, if the inside market fallsbetween the trade levels of 10400 and 10384, an indicator, such as acolor-coded line, could be displayed on the boundary between the twocells corresponding to the trade levels. It should be understood thatthe trade information application 204 could dynamically updateposition(s) of the inside market indicator(s) when it detects a changein the inside market levels.

The trade information displays 400 and 500 illustrated in relation toFIGS. 4 and 5 display trading data related to a single tradeable objectbeing traded by a trader. In another example embodiment, the tradeinformation displays could be configured for use by a systemadministrator. In such an embodiment, the system administrator couldview multiple trade related data displays. Displays corresponding to onetrader could be grouped together so that the system administrator couldeasily asses how each trader is doing. Alternatively, trade informationcorresponding to a single tradeable object being traded by multipletraders could be displayed in relation to a single trade informationdisplay. In such an embodiment, the system administrator could quicklyasses the overall standing of all traders who trade the same tradeableobject. Yet different configurations are possible as well.

The above description of the example embodiments, alternativeembodiments, and specific examples, are given by way of illustration andshould not be viewed as limiting. Also, many changes and modificationswithin the scope of the present embodiments may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit thereof, and the present invention includessuch changes and modifications.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the system and method for providing trading information inrelation to a plurality of trade levels may be embodied in a computerprogram product that includes one or more computer readable media. Forexample, a computer readable medium can include a readable memorydevice, such as a hard drive device, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, or a computerdiskette, having computer readable program code segments stored thereon.The computer readable medium can also include a communications ortransmission medium, such as, a bus or a communication link, eitheroptical, wired or wireless having program code segments carried thereonas digital or analog data signals.

The claims should not be read as limited to the described order orelements unless stated to that effect. Therefore, all embodiments thatcome within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalentsthereto are claimed as the invention.

1. (canceled)
 2. A computer readable medium having stored thereininstructions executable by a processor, wherein the instructions areexecutable to: display a plurality of price levels corresponding to atradeable object within a graphical user interface on a computer screen;select a group of filled orders from a plurality of orders for thetradeable object as an effective trade based on a user configurabledefinition, wherein each of the plurality of orders has been filled,wherein the group of filled orders includes two or more of the pluralityof orders, wherein the user configurable definition is used to determinea first order from the plurality of orders initiating the effectivetrade and which other orders in the plurality of orders should begrouped with the first order, wherein the effective trade is associatedwith a designated price; compute a total traded quantity value for theeffective trade based on the group of filled orders and data relating tothe plurality of orders; and display the total traded quantity value ata location corresponding to the designated price in the plurality ofprice levels within the graphical user interface.
 3. The computerreadable medium of claim 2, wherein the user configurable definitionspecifies selecting which orders are grouped as the effective tradeaccording to a first-in-first-out (“FIFO”) method or to alast-in-first-out (“LIFO”) method.
 4. The computer readable medium ofclaim 2, wherein the user configurable definition specifies selectingfilled orders going from a zero position in the tradeable object totaking a long or short position in the tradeable object and then back tothe zero position in the tradeable object as the effective trade.
 5. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions arefurther executable to: determine a number of effective trades initiatedat each of the plurality of price levels; and display a total tradedvolume value for each of the plurality of price levels, wherein thetotal traded volume value is a summation of a total traded quantityvalue for each of the number of effective trades initiated at aparticular price level.
 6. The computer readable medium of claim 5,wherein the instructions are further executable to: display the numberof effective trades in relation to each corresponding price level. 7.The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions arefurther executable to: determine a total position taken for each of theplurality of price levels, wherein the total position taken is asummation of positions taken for each of the number of effective tradesinitiated at the particular price level.
 8. The computer readable mediumof claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable to: displaya last trade price indicator in relation to the plurality of pricelevels.
 9. The computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein a clientdevice includes the processor.
 10. The computer readable medium of claim2, wherein at least one of a gateway and a server includes theprocessor.
 11. The computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein thedesignated price is the price of the first order.
 12. The computerreadable medium of claim 2, wherein the effective trade is associatedwith a designated side, wherein the side is a buy or a sell.
 13. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the designated side is abuy when the first order is a buy order.
 14. The computer readablemedium of claim 12, wherein the designated side is a sell when the firstorder is a sell order.